Electronic mail (email) systems typically include a plurality of email services, each of which may receive and store email messages for a plurality of users. When an email service stores email messages sent to a particular email user, that user is said to have an email account with the service. Each email account has at least one associated email address, which may be used to send email to that account.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a typical email system. The illustrated email system includes a webmail service 102, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) email service 104, a mail transfer service 110 and preferred email service 114 that communicate over a wide area network, such as the Internet 108. An email service 102, 104, 114 is typically used to receive and store email, and a mail transfer service 110 is typically used to send email.
The ISP email service 104 is an email service hosted by an Internet Service Provider (ISP). An ISP email service 104 is typically accessed using an email client 106. The webmail service 102 is an email service that is accessible via the World Wide Web (WWW). A webmail service 102 allows a user to access email stored by the service using a web client, such as a web browser 100. In addition, if a single email user has accounts with multiple email services, then one such email service may be the user's preferred email service 114. The preferred email service 114 may thus be any type of email service, such as a webmail service or an ISP email service, and may be accessed with an email client 116. For the purposes of this patent document, all email services other than the user's preferred email service 114 may be referred to as “secondary email services.”
The email client 116 may, for example, be a personal computer, a mobile communication device (see, e.g., FIG. 6), or some other type of email-enabled platform.
The mail transfer service 110 may, for example, be a server which implements the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). An email sender 112, such as a commercially available email program, may be used to access a mail transfer service 110 in order to send email.
In operation, when an email sender 112 requests the mail transfer service 110 to send an email message, the mail transfer service 110 contacts a destination email service 102, 104, 114 via the Internet 108. In this example, the destination service may be the webmail service 102, the ISP email service 104, or the preferred email service 114. It should be understood, however, that other email system topologies are possible in addition to that illustrated in FIG. 1. For example, the email services 102, 104, 114 and the mail transfer service 110 shown in FIG. 1 are separate and distinct services. In other embodiments, however, an email service may be configured to implement a protocol, such as SMTP, so that it may also function as a mail transfer service.
When an email user has email accounts with multiple email services, it may be inconvenient for the user to access all of the email sent to each account. It may be especially inconvenient if one of the user's email services can be accessed from a type of email client 100, 106, 116 that is not available to other services. For example, the user's preferred email service 114 may be accessible by a wireless mobile communication device (see, e.g., FIG. 6), while the user's secondary email service(s) are not accessible wirelessly. In addition, it may be confusing for a person to send an email message to an email user who has multiple email accounts. The person wishing to send the email message may not know to which of multiple email services is preferred by the email recipient.